Warner recommends looking for furniture made from recycled materials based on

Tag : home furniture
The appeal of modern design's spare lines and forms has combinedwith the desire to reduce, reuse and recycle, and the result ishigh-end, streamlined furniture and accessories for the home.

These often pricey items can't simply look good; they have toperform well, too.

"It's got to have all the qualities of any other kind of furnitureor accessory you would normally buy," says Jill Warner, owner ofMod Livin', which sells modern and retro furniture in Denver.

While going green appeals to many buyers, most people "don't wantto spend more money because it's green," Warner says.

She maintains that design, pure and simple, drives a buyer'sdecision-making.

"As long as the design is modern and attractive, it will sell," shesays of the furniture, some made from recycled materials, in her10,000-square-foot store.

Anne and Trevor Webb have been making furniture for years in LosAngeles. Two years ago, they launched Urban Woods, primarily usinglumber from old, demolished buildings.

"We use this old-growth and denser, harder, more beautiful Douglasfir," says Trevor Webb. "It's naturally resistant to bugs androtting."

The Webbs use recycled wood because it's sustainable, but alsobecause "you can't buy this quality of lumber if you go to a lumberyard," Trevor Webb says.

Urban Woods' modern design belies the stereotypes of recycledfurniture: This is neither chunky nor country.

Webb sees this trend in modern lines and form continuing.

"People have started to get creative," he says.

Warner recommends looking for furniture made from recycledmaterials based on quality, texture and design.

In the end, she says a "recycled" piece is one that's simplyreused, because it doesn't require additional energy and resourcesto create.

"So, truly recycled products are vintage things you fix up andclean up," she says.



For more information

* modlivin.com

* urbanwoods.net